Rhizomatous perennial; culms 5-15cm high, erect, clothed at the base with the fibrous remains of old leaf-sheaths. Leaf-blades usually folded, sometimes flat, 1-4cm long, 1.5-2mm wide, abruptly contracted to a blunt tip, minutely scabrid on the margins; ligule blunt, 1.5-2mm long. Panicle oblong or pyramidal, 1.5-4.5mm long, the spikelets in clumps at the tips of the branches; branches paired or solitary, straight or flexuous, capillary, eventually spreading horizontally or deflexed, smooth or scaberulous. Spikelets (1-)2-3-flowered, broadly elliptic or ovate, 35-4mm long, variegated with yellow and purple; glumes subequal, elliptic or ovate, 2.3-2.8mm long, the lower 1(-3)-nerved, the upper broader, 3-nerved; lemmas oblong in side view, 2.7-3.5mm long, rounded at the tip, long-ciliate on the keel and marginal nerves, with copious wool at the base; palea a little shorter than the lemma, the keels smooth below, with a few blunt teeth above; anthers 1.5-2mm long.

Fl. & Fr. Per.: July-August.

Type: Pamir, Alexeenko (LE).

Distribution: Kashmir; Himalayas, Tibet and USSR (Central Asia).

A very handsome species with broadly blunt lemmas variegated with yellow and purple. Found at high altitudes between 4300 and 5500m.